Dario Leone

4 days ago | theaviationgeekclub.com | Dario Leone

With the high-cost implications and doubts concerning the General Dynamics F-111B from the late 1960s and the Navy’s replacement interceptor – Grumman’s – F-14 Tomcat – the F-15N was almost considered to be a ‘safe option’` to the riskier Tomcat programme. Two versions were mooted, the first initially in 1971. This was to be a basic ‘navalisation’ of the standard F-15A airframe.

4 days ago | theaviationgeekclub.com | Dario Leone

Last month, Lt. Col. Eric Alvarez, 345th Bomb Squadron Commander and Weapons Systems Officer (WSO), crossed the 5,000 flying hour threshold in the B-1B Lancer at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, one of only a handful of people to ever reach the mark.

6 days ago | theaviationgeekclub.com | Dario Leone

A US Air Force (USAF) B-52H Stratofortress aircraft assigned to Bomber Task Force Europe executed mission MIGHTY RHINO on May 23, integrating with African partner forces in Morocco. According to a USAF news release, the bomber integrated with Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF) F-16s fighter jets in support of African Lion, the largest annual military exercise in Africa, demonstrating the reach of US airpower and the US Air Force’s enduring commitment to collaboration with partner forces.

1 week ago | theaviationgeekclub.com | Dario Leone

Two Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s were scrambled from their deployed operating base in Northern Poland, to intercept a Russian aircraft transiting close to NATO airspace on May 24, 2025. NATO scrambled the Malbork based Typhoons to intercept Ilyushin Il-20M (NATO reporting name: Coot-A) that had previously been intercepted and escorted by three other pairs of NATO aircraft, earlier that day.

1 week ago | theaviationgeekclub.com | Dario Leone

From the earliest days of aviation, the problem of range extension for aircraft was contemplated. Range extension would allow aircraft to transit large distances or bodies of water without the problem of landing for services. In a military application, it would allow the bomb-laden aircraft to take off with heavier weapons loads, and reach targets much further than normally possible. A solution to range extension, by air-refueling, surfaced very early in the history of aviation.